Enjoy the Sweeter Side of Life . . .

Farm Fresh Chicken

The feet were interesting. The more closely I looked at the chicken’s feet, the more I could totally see them being related to dinosaurs, as is the current scientific thought. They were smooth, scaly and very reptilian looking… much like our friends’ pet snake. It was fascinating!

Why, you may ask, was I holding a chicken foot? Well I came into the possession of a chicken recently, and not any supermarket chicken. This was a chicken that was clucking around the yard that very morning, a chicken that had lived its little chicken life roosting and laying. This chicken was a throwback to the days in the not-so-distant past when people raised their own animals in the farms that surrounded Vineland.

Sure there’s a nostalgic feeling that I get about eating farm food. Maybe it’s because I appreciate the flavors of real food, foods that existed before the days of factory farms, red #40, and high fructose corn syrup. I have heard from a lot of older folks about the way food used to be, not only the culture of eating, but the flavor. It was different they said, the meat was more rich, but all I could find was the tender and flavorless chicken of today. I longed to taste real meat; the taste of a chicken that developed flavor is its muscles from using them. It’s the same idea with beef, as many cooks know. Tenderloin is tender because it’s a muscle that isn’t used much. You can cook it fast and hot, right on the grill or in a pan. But the shank, which is part of the leg and is used extensively, must be cooked low and slow in order for it to become the amazing dish known as osso bucco.

A few weeks ago, my article on eggs was published and shortly thereafter came an offer for an older hen for me to cook. It was on. Because a friend of ours, Janice, and I had been talking about this very subject recently, she invited Jill and I, as well as Brittany and Kate, to her apartment for a dinner of roasted chicken.

As the day of our dinner plans approached though, I began to have thoughts that roasting the chicken would not be the ideal cooking method for the chicken that we would be getting. Since, as I mentioned previously, the chicken was older and had a life lived moving and working the muscles, this hen would need to be slow cooked in a liquid. Stew, soup or something of that nature was in order here.

Two days before our dinner, I heard on The Splended Table (a lovely radio show devoted to good food that comes on at 4pm Saturdays on 89.3), about a gentleman in a similar situation. He had an older, tougher bird that he didn’t know what to do with. Coq au Vin was the reply that came from the hostesses mouth, ‘chicken in wine,’ a classic French dish that has been eaten for centuries. Of course, I thought!

Janice Aseltine chillin'

For Christmas, Jill’s mother got her Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the classic Julia Child tome that helped bring French cooking into the homes of many Americans. Sure enough, there was a recipe for coq au vin in the poultry section. I looked it over, and it was nothing too crazy… an older chicken, red wine, tomato paste, garlic, etc.

The day arrived and I went to get the chicken. I was informed that she was about eight months old as of that day, and had been alive and well only that morning. This was as fresh as it gets. I was glad to hear that my intuition was right, and the path that had led me to coq au vin was the right one. I was told that she wouldn’t be suitable for roasting. Chicken of this nature was different, not as tender as I was used to, but full of flavor in cooked the right way.

At Janice’s the chicken came out of the bag, and that was when the aforementioned feet came in. I don’t think I’d ever really seen chicken feet before, which seemed weird because I’d eaten chicken my whole life. Was I that disconnected to my food that this was the first chicken foot I’d held?

Fortunately, the feet were not attached, and the animal was cleaned out. Janice got to work breaking it down into the various parts that we would be eating. She said that she hadn’t broken down a chicken in a while, but it was bringing back memories of her childhood when her family used to raise chicken and her father would do all the intense and precise cuts.

As the recipe required, Kate cut a few strips of bacon into chunks and I rendered the fat out of them in my big stainless steel pot that I don’t use as often as I’d like. Once the fat was out of the bacon and that unmistakable smell filled the kitchen, I removed the crunchy meaty bits, added a tablespoon of butter (it’s Julia’s recipe, and she does not skimp on the fat!), and added the chicken pieces. They browned beautifully and I was surprised at the dark color of the meat, another sign of a well-exercised fowl.

I added the bacon pieces back into the pot, covered, and let steam for about ten minutes. Then into the pot was a splash on whisky (recipe called for cognac…) to deglaze followed by leftover red wine and chicken stock to cover the meat. Seasoned with a spoonful of tomato paste, thyme, pepper, a bay leaf along with some carrots and celery (not a French addition, but I took a little liberty there). It came up to a simmer (where it would stay, covered) and it smelled good, although very winey.

After about an hour of simmering, we were hungry!

The coq au vin

The alcohol had cooked off and the winey smell had mellowed into a rich, unctuous aroma. The chicken pieces had taken on a red wine stained hue, and the sauce had thickened slightly. I dipped a spoon in to taste, and… it was hot, but oh wow did it taste good.

The potatoes were mashed, the mushrooms and onions were done sautéing, the French bread was sliced, the wine was poured, and the salad was tossed. I gently took the chicken out of the pot and placed it into a platter. The braising liquid was strained and thickened with a little roux, and it was then spooned over the chicken. It smelled so good; we were salivating at the thought of eating. We thanked the chicken for giving its life to us, and we dug in. Dinner was ready…

Kate Fellows portioning out dessert

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That looks awesome! I love “The Splendid Table” and listen every week, and you can’t go wrong with Julia’s recipes (I recently made her beef bourguignon). I love that you think through the food from farm to table.

[…] The feet were interesting. The more closely I looked at the chicken’s feet, the more I could totally see them being related to dinosaurs, as is the current scientific thought. They were smooth, scaly and very reptilian looking… much like our friends’ pet snake. It was fascinating! Why, you may ask, was I holding a chicken foot? Well I came into the possession of a chicken recently, and not any supermarket chicken. This was a chicken that was clucking around the yard that very morning, a chicken that had lived its little chicken life roosting and laying. source […]